Magpie Support

If you have an issue with Magpie, or a feature request, you can write me an email at aaron@innoveghtive.com. Please check the list of frequently-questioned answers below beforehand, in case your issue has been covered already.

How do I save a video?

When you first run Magpie, you'll find four videos automatically added to your collection. Saving Videos with Magpie comes in two versions, for each of Mac and iOS. These videos demonstrate how to use the Magpie Action Extension, which is the best and easiest way to get videos into Magpie. If, however, you're in an app that doesn't provide access to the Action menu, there's a couple of alternatives:

Copy the URL: if you can copy the URL of a web page that contains the video, Magpie can capture it. On iOS, switch to Magpie with a URL copied, and it'll detect that URL and offer to save. On the Mac, choose Video > Import Video from Clipboard URL... and follow the prompts.

Use a bookmarklet: If you use a browser such as Chrome on your Mac, you can use a bookmarklet to send pages to Magpie. Simply drag this link to your Chrome bookmarks bar:

I can't save a video!

There are a variety of reasons that videos may not be directly save-able to Magpie. Here's a list of the most common:

There is no video on the page. If a video isn't embedded on the page, then Magpie won't detect it. Silly, I know. But double-check.

The video isn't hosted by Youtube or Vimeo. Many sites either self-host their video, or use another party. Magpie doesn't provide direct support for these videos, but you can still Save them, allowing you to get back to the web page later.

The video has restricted rights. Youtube offers video owners the ability to restrict playback to the web player, preventing Magpie from importing directly. The import message dialogue will indicate this, but you can still save the web page for later.

You may not be logged into iCloud. See the next question.

If you want to let me know about a video that you'd like Magpie to support, use the "Notify Developer" link, which will send me an email. I'm using this method to rank the sites that I should target for additional support down the road.

My videos aren't syncing / appearing in Magpie after I save!

Apple's CloudKit is pretty great, but it doesn't work 100% of the time. If Magpie isn't syncing correctly, the best way to resolve the situation is to quit the app and restart it. On the Mac, it's as simple as hitting Command-Q, and relaunching. On iOS, double-tap the Home button, and swipe Magpie up to force-quit.

Magpie says I'm not logged into iCloud...

Because Magpie relies on iCloud to store your video information, you must be logged into iCloud everywhere you use Magpie. And if you want syncing to work between devices, you must be logged in with the same account. Apple has generously provided lovely instructions for setting up iCloud on your iOS device as well as your Mac.